Are you looking for ways to start new habits and actually stick to them? Let me share with you some of my 3 best kept secrets on how you can sustainably build new habits and be proud of yourself for never giving up, half way through your 30-days challenge! Learn how to develop discipline when it comes to habits forming, and ways to easily stick to these healthy lifestyle decisions. Enjoy the process of on-going learning and continuous improvement!
3 Amazing Secrets To Creating New & Sustainable Habits
Last Updated on October 27, 2021 by ELLEASH
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How Can I Create New, Sustainable Habits?
Hey hey my lovely entrepreneurs,
3 Steps Closer To Changing Your Life For The Better
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It’s early June and we are all relishing in the warmer weather, longer days and living with a feeling a relative freedom, whilst still under COVID-19.
I wanted to write this post, which may actually turn out to be a series, on the topic of habits.
I know it’s an odd moment to write about starting new sustainable habits, as we are well into the year, nevertheless I feel that there shouldn’t really be a set period in the year to start something new.
We shouldn’t solely change our ways in the New Year, but whenever we just feel like we are stuck in a place and we want to elevate ourselves and improve ourselves.
So, what are the secrets of forming new habits?
We all have times in our lives where we intentionally want to change our behavior for the better and create new ways to live our life. This could be getting in the habit of eating healthier or drinking more water. I know that drinking more water is something on-going for me.
It could be moving more and getting a little more exercise on the daily. Or it could be work related, spiritual, etc … There are so many areas in our lives that could be improved and made easier if we just created new ways of living.
But getting into the habit of doing something is often easier said than done. We seem to acquire super bad habits without trying, but getting into a “good” habit can be a lot more challenging.
To make it easy to follow until we’ve internalized the new behavior and made it a true habit – something we do automatically without having to think about, like brushing our teeth – I’ve broken it down in 3 baby steps for you.
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What are the first 3 steps to getting closer to your best life?
#1 Decide What It Is You Really Want To Do
The first step to creating a new habit is to decide what you want your new habit to be. Be as specific as possible. Don’t just tell yourself you want to exercise more. Instead, say something like “I will go for a 30 minute walk every single day”. Deciding what your new habit will be and committing to when and how you’re going to do it, is half the battle.
I remember when I truly wanted to spend more time on my side-business. In the beginning, I knew that’s what I wanted to do, but kept fluffing about and never getting anything done properly!
So, instead of saying ” I need to work on my side-business”, I actually wrote down in my journal, “I will dedicate every Monday morning to working on my side-business“. And BOOM, after a few weeks, I started seeing changes in my mindset, getting stuff done and moving into the direction I want to go in!
Being specific is key when wanting to form new habits, and really keeping to them.
If you would like to journal about your new habits, why not download this Habit Journal Printable? You’ll be able to keep track of how you are going with sticking to your new habits, as well as be accountable for them! You’ve got nothing to lose, it’s a free download ☺️.
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#2 Keep Reminding Yourself To Actually Do It
The next few days should be easy peasy. You’re motivated and excited to get into it. Sticking to your new habit isn’t going to pose you a problem. But a few days in, you may notice that you are getting lazier and just not doing what you had intended to, just those few days back.
We all know that bad habits tend to creep back really easily, so it’s ever important to keep reminding yourself to actually get into your “new habit” mode!
Picture it. It’s cold and wet and you don’t really want to go out for that daily walk you promised yourself you’d be doing. Or maybe you just can’t seem to “find” that moment in your day to look after that part of your business, or your paperwork or whatever it is you had every intention in getting done.
This is why it’s important to have your daily reminder. Set an alert on your phone or add the new habit to your daily to-do list for a while.
Ensuring you’re doing it everyday, will make it the norm in your day, and you won’t even think about doing it, you’ll just get it done automatically.
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#3 Make It Part Of Your Routine Until It Becomes A Habit
Which brings us to the last step. It takes some time before a new behavior becomes a true habit. Until then, a routine will work to your best advantage. Before any new behavior becomes automatic, a routine is a good alternative to help you get started without having to spend a lot of willpower or relying on daily reminders.
Make that daily walk part of your after dinner routine, or change from grabbing a snack at the vending machine at work at 10:00 in the morning to packing a healthy snack.
When you decide to create the new habit, practice the routine until it’s second nature and you’ll be well on your way to forming a new good habit.
But what happens when you just can’t seem to get into that new habit? You have every good intention in keeping up with your daily walk, your decluttering session or just cutting back on that “last” cookie, but fulfilling that intention is hard AF.
And this is where willpower comes into play.
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Why are routines & willpower often put under the same umbrella?
Willpower has a tendency to have a mind of its own when it comes to sticking to something new.
We could probably go on a crash diet of just drinking smoothies for a few weeks, but inevitably our willpower just fades into the sunset. I mean, you can’t sustainably just eat your liquids!
Same goes for that gym membership you paid for (in full!) in January. You were super motivated and excited to be getting back into shape, but by week 3 of the new year, your willpower ran out of steam.
What happens to the mundane, everyday, things you do, you ask? Like jumping in the shower first thing in the morning, driving your kids to school, or even setting the dishwasher at night, so it’s all done in the morning for clean dishes? These are undoubtedly not your most interesting, or favorite, things to do, but you do them without questioning it, nor thinking about your willpower ever fizzing out.
You do them, because they have become part of your routine, are so indispensable in what you do and inevitably they have now become habits.
So what is the real relationship between willpower and habits? More precisely, why is there an opposite relationship between these 2 terms? This becomes apparent when you’re starting something new and want to make it into a habit.
Building up to creating an activity into a new habit takes a lot of willpower to do it without really questioning it or even pushing that moment to get it done aside. As you start to get the hang of that habit, it becomes much easier to do, until it just becomes second nature!
For the Moms out there, you know how important it is to create a routine, a pattern for your baby, so that they can have time reference and start to understand when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to be awake. Or when we tell our kids to brush their teeth in the morning and at night, or even to get dressed before leaving the house! After a while, kids don’t question it (much), as it’s part of their routine, and it has become a habit. The same goes for us when we are getting into creating new habits.
Being mindful of this process helps us adopt our habits easier. It’s no longer an effort to go for that run or skip the fries for lunch. There is hope y’all! We know eventually it will become habit to go out for a run first thing in the morning, grab some fruit or granola for breakfast or go for the baked potato rather than the fries for lunch.
While you’re in that transition from willpower to habit, there are ways to make it easier. Use a to-do list or set a reminder to help stay on track. Find an accountability partner so you can boost yourselves and just each others’ cheerleader when you’re starting to get back into that “bad” habit of not getting it done!
I know that having my journal out on my desk, highly visible, made it easier for me to not forget to write in it, when I was trying to write into it every morning. Another thing I like to do is take out my work out kit the night before if I want to go for that early run the following morning. These little things have definitely helped me maintain my daily journaling habit, as well as keeping up with my workouts – even if my days are super busy, I know that these habits are now part of my routine and they make me feel amazing!
Doing what you can to help your willpower along until you have made the new behavior a true habit, will help in creating automatisms and before you know it, you’ll have created an awesome lifelong habit!
I hope you enjoyed this post which deals with ways you can start improving your life, by creating and sticking to your new habits. Let me know what you think about it, or if you’d like to let us know about how you are forming new habits, and when do you actually do it, we are always super happy to read your comments!
Elle Ash xo
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